1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to producing a dough, the solids of which comprise substantially potato solids; forming the dough to the piece size of standard French fry potatoes; parfrying the pieces, and freezing the parfried pieces to produce a product which can be heated (in oven or deep fat) from the thawed or frozen state to produce an excellent finished French fried potato.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Frozen parfried pieces of natural potato are by far the largest volume frozen vegetable product sold in the United States. Although these products are widely accepted, they have several recognized deficiencies. Natural potato pieces must be perfectly peeled and trimmed free of defects to prevent unacceptable dark areas on the finished pieces. French fries made from natural potato pieces vary greatly in size and shape due to the shape and dimensions of the tubers from which they are cut. Much of the original moisture of natural potato pieces remains after parfrying and freezing, and therefore, the finishing frying step takes too long, requiring about 3-5 minutes in oil heated to 350.degree.-360.degree.F. This is a distinct disadvantage in eating establishments which require rapid preparation of foods during rush periods. Further, although frozen French fried natural potatoes are quite good in texture when freshly fried, they quickly become limp and soggy when held after frying, even under heat lamps. Uniformity of color is also a problem since potatoes accumulate sugars during storage and, therefore, must be given additional processing to add or remove sugars to reach the optimum level.
To overcome these deficiencies, there have been attempts to prepare potato products, including French fries, at least in part from dehydrated potato particles such as potato flakes and potato granules.
The prior art discloses processes, such as English Pat. No. 608,996, for producing a dough from cooked, dried mashed potato powder (i.e. potato granules) and a small quantity of adhesive or binding agents which are soluble in or not incompatible with water, such as gums, pectins, gelatin or gelatinized starch. The solids are mixed with sufficient water to form the dough with approximately 33% solids and 67% moisture. The dough is then rolled and/or shaped into coherent pieces, such as chips and the like, and can be finish fried in one-half to one minute. U.S. Pat. No. 3,468,673 discloses a process for making French fry mix comprising approximately 95% dehydrated mashed potatoes (i.e. granules or flakes), 0.2 to 0.8% polygalactomannan gum, and 0.75 to 2% methyl cellulose. While the mixtures of the aforesaid patents may have been perfectly satisfactory for their intended purposes, they are completely unsatisfactory when parfried and frozen and then later refried for consumption. The freezing affects the texture adversely and results in a product which falls apart upon thawing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,399,062 discloses a process for making frozen French fries. The patent discloses a process wherein dehydrated potato aggregates are rehydrated in 0.9 to 4.5 parts by weight water at a temperature below 130.degree.F. in the presence of a thermal gelling cellulose ether binder. The rehydrated mix is extruded into French fry sized pieces and deep fat fried for final consumption. Alternatively the extruded pieces can be parfried after which they can be frozen and subsequently prepared for consumption by heating in a hot sack or baking in an oven. Such frozen products can be refried directly from the frozen state, or allowed to thaw before refrying. The patent states that the product remained firm after thawing, but the degree of firmness is not indicated. The patent also discloses the optional addition of raw potato pulp in the amount of 0-1.5% by weight of the potato solids in order to improve flavor. (The pulp would include a small amount of raw potato starch probably in the range of 0-0.3% of the solids). However, there is no disclosure of the use of 0.5 to 5% guar gum to impart structural strength during forming of the French fry pieces, nor, of 2-15% raw starch as the ingredient for imparting freeze-thaw strength following parfrying as in applicants' process. Also, applicants do not use a thermal gelling cellulose ether binder.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,,634,105, commonly owned with the present application, discloses a process for making a hash brown potato product starting with a formulation similar to applicants' starting formulation. The patent discloses dry mixing approximately 91% (but not less than about 80%) by weight potato granules with 6-9% by weight raw starch and then adding water and mixing to form a dough having 17-50% solids and 50-83% moisture. Thereafter the dough is formed into potato pieces of the size of hash brown potatoes (i.e. 1/8 inch by 1/4 inch in cross section and any convenient length) and then heat treated (as by steaming for 10 minutes on a screen) to gelatinize the starch. The partially dried strips are then finally dried to commercial dryness of 71/2% moisture. The dehydrated hash browns readily rehydrate upon the addition of water without loss of piece integrity and can then be finally fried for eating and make a delicious dish of hash brown potatoes. The starting formulation does not include gum, as does applicants', and there is no disclosure of process steps to make freeze-thaw stable French fried potatoes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,647, commonly owned with the present application, discloses process steps similar to applicants' process steps of forming French fried potato pieces from a potato dough. The patent discloses a dough is formed into French fry size strips by moving the dough through one set of parallel spaced apart wires to cause the dough to divide into portions and protrude outwardly from the wires while a second set of wires is synchronously moved transversely to the moving dough to separate the protruding portions into French fry size pieces. The potato pieces are then deep dried for eating. The patent does not disclose the preparation of freeze-thaw stable French fries, and, of course, applicants use a different formulation for preparing the dough and different processing steps prior to and after forming the French fry pieces.
American Potato Company has sold more than one year prior to the filing date of this application a French fry potato product that was made according to the following process steps:
a. a cohesive potato dough was prepared of about 33% solids and 66% moisture content, the solids at least including by weight about 96% intact cooked potato cells, about 2% gum binder and about 2% salt, the water being added to the dough at a temperature of about 70.degree.; PA1 b. the dough was formed into French fry size pieces by first dividing the dough into slabs and then crosscutting the slabs; PA1 c. the pieces were then parfried in fat at a temperature of about 330.degree.F. until the moisture content was reduced to about 56% by weight; and PA1 d. the parfried pieces were then frozen, packaged and shipped to a final destination where they were thawed and finally finish fried in oil at about 350.degree.F.
Raw starch was not used in any step of the process of making the product. In this instance the finished product was unsatisfactory. Most importantly, following parfrying, the potato pieces did not have sufficient piece integrity during each of the subsequent processing and handling steps. The parfried product was not freeze-thaw stable and had adverse flavor characteristics. Applicants overcome the deficiency of the aforesaid product due to the unique contribution of the addition of raw starch in proper amounts in the starting materials which renders applicants' product freeze-thaw stable and of excellent texture and flavor.
The product of the present invention does not suffer from the deficiencies of the prior art and is a freeze-thaw stable, parfried, French fry made from dehydrated potato particles and raw starch.